A Woman Priest’s Commentary on the Words of Colombian Bishop Cordoba about the GLBTQ Community

Here I offer my commentary and an article by Francis De Bernardo of newaysministryblog that reports on the story of a Colombian Bishop who attempted to engage the GLBT community in positive ways and was then caught by those on the right and the left for the imperfections in his dialogue. His apologies seemed authentic and on balance were promising for future positive dialogue and discourse. This is a story form my ministry as a commentary on Cordoba’s first tentative steps at extending God’s love to all.

There are gay young adults in our Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community and it is a constant struggle for me to make them welcome and affirmed in the face of other young (and some older) people who, influenced by the lack of acceptance in their cultures and other churches with literal interpretations of the Bible and what I call “(un)righteous and sanctioned hate” freely disparage gay people. This week in our Teen and Young Adult class (ages 15-23) about the “Great Commission” a 16 year old who sometimes attends a fundamentalist church with his family said: “My other pastor said that the world will end soon because of the sinful behavior of gays and others who live in sin.” He made crude jokes and used demeaning words to describe “gay behavior” and tried to quote the Bible to justify his positions. The gay young man sat back and scrutinized him. Then he shared that God has brought him back from nearly dying and so today he wants to give thanks to God and share God’s love with others. Some of the other kids laughed. I knew that talking about this made them nervous, but it was more derisive than nervous laughter. I said that I believed that he meant this with all of his heart and it moved me. After a silence,others said gay people are okay unless they come on to straight people. One young man replied that if God didn’t punish sin then everyone would enjoy sinning so he thought gays would definitely be punished. Others asked if the world was really about to end. It was my turn to teach.

I admit that I inhaled deeply and with a prayer. First I said that those disparaging terms were hateful and ignorant and should never be used by anyone, especially those who say they follow Christ. Our gay young man relaxed and smiled and said “There!”. Then I repeated my constant message that God is love and we are all created and sustained by God’s love. Each one of us is a unique work of art by a loving God. God loves each of us completely, just as we are and that includes gay and bisexual and questioning people. (The TV ads for the HBO Movie Bessie Smith brought bisexuality into their consciousness and this was mentioned.) The Bible should never be used to justify hateful positions and I would be glad to meet with the 16 year old’s other pastor to discuss the Bible. For example, he may like to know that the sin of Sodom and Gomorah was not “Sodomy” but inhospitality to strangers. And the context of Paul’s words on this were for a certain community with specific behaviors in a specific context at a specific time and not a moral pronouncement for the ages. Two young women said that they were really scared about the world ending soon and I said that we needed to take care of our planet so it can go on with clean air and water and health for all of us. But, what our friend’s pastor said about gay behavior causing the world to end now was simply uninformed misunderstanding of the Scriptures. We need to know who God is-Love- and how Love behaves. As Pope Francis recently said “who am I to judge” gay people, (or anyone)-love does not judge or condemn or disparage(talk poorly about) anyone. And now we turn to how to spread the Gospel of love, not hateful misunderstandings….” After the class, our gay young man thanked me and said he feels safe when I teach the others. He believes really God does love him and he told this to a particular friend of his. I gave him a big hug and asked him to bring his friend to church and to our class. He said he would.

I truly hope that hearing about and experiencing God’s love can change the ignorant,hateful, and hurtful positions on gay people sometimes learned and reinforced in church. I hope that influential Bishops like Pope Francis and Juan Vicente Cordoba of Colombia can pave the way unambiguously for new understandings and the cessation of sanctioned condemnation and disparagement of at least a tenth of God’s human creation who are not of heterosexual sexual orientation. As Bishop Cordoba said: The church welcomes every man and woman with a mother’s love…”

Would that it were so and will be so.

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, Roman Catholic Woman Priest

FROM Newwaysministryblog:

“It’s pretty rare, and thus news, when a Catholic bishop makes statements about gay and lesbian people that equally anger both liberals and conservatives. It’s even rarer to hear a Catholic bishop apologize for any of his statements.

Yet, a bishop in Colombia did both those things this past week. Bishop Juan Vicente Córdoba of Fontibón, Colombia, created a stir last week, when during a university talk about same-sex marriage, he proposed the idea that one of the Apostles was perhaps gay and Mary Magdalene might have been a lesbian.

In his talk, he also suggested that gay and lesbian couples be respected, though he did not support marriage or adoption rights for them. But, he also gave a positive evaluation of homosexuality. The message he offered was very mixed, and a bit confusing.

As a result, according to Crux, the bishop’s words and message were not well-received by either progressives or conservatives. The news report stated:

“To illustrate his point, he used a pejorative Spanish term for a gay man, offending members of Colombia‘s gay community during a speech intended to denounce discrimination based on sexual orientation. . . . Conservatives, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow when the bishop said that homosexuality is not a sin and that gays are welcomed by the church.”

In his original speech, Córdoba spoke very positively about gay and lesbian people. The following, according to Crux, are some of his statements:

“ ‘No one chooses to be gay or straight,’ Córdoba said. ‘One simply feels, loves, experiments, is attracted, and no attraction is bad.’. . .

“Although Córdoba reiterated Church teaching when it comes to marriage – that it’s a union between a man and a woman, permanent, and open to children – he said that homosexuality isn’t a sin.

“ ‘Sin is something else. It’s not respecting the dignity of others. Not loving God and our neighbors as we love ourselves, not feeding the hungry, not giving water to the thirsty,’ Córdoba said.

“According to local reports, Córdoba said that in the Bible there’s no explicit rejection of homosexuality, suggesting there’s no basis for making a condemnation of homosexuality a Church doctrine. . . .

“Córdoba asked those in favor of the gay rights bill not to call the opposition ‘recalcitrant, dinosaurs, cavemen, retarded, because we also have the right to present our ideas and our emotions with respect.’

” ‘There will come a time when the Catholic Church is a minority that will be crushed by the majority,’ he warned. ‘Let us respect each other, without using adjectives or telling anyone they’re sick or disordered.’ “

Yet, the bishop did return to the language of “disorder” when he issued his apology and clarification of what he originally had said. A follow-up Crux article reported on his change of mind:

“ ‘Even if homosexuality as an inclination doesn’t constitute a sin, it’s regarded as a disordered conduct,’ he said.

“Córdoba said that his words were not intended to modify the ‘solid and unchangeable moral position of the Church,’ but to express respect in an auditorium which, according to the prelate, was mostly composed of leaders and members of the LGBT community. “

The bishop also apologized for his use of “unfortunate colloquial expressions,” and explained the use of the pejorative in terms of the situation of his speech:

“The bishop also admitted that he didn’t know there were members of the press present at the event, and that he only used such colloquial expressions because of the academic and dialogic context of the encounter, adding that they had no theological or moral value.”

It is difficult to assess this controversy. The bishop seems to have been sincerely interested in building bridges with the lesbian and gay community in Colombia, a nation which is currently debating legalizing marriage equality. His use of a derogatory word was certainly ill-advised, at the least, but his apology for it seems sincere.

It is curious, however, that the bishop’s apology and clarification in which he reverts to traditional hierarchical language was issued not by his diocese but, according to the news report, by the Colombian bishops’ conference. That seems to indicate that his second set of remarks were motivated by someone from that organization.

What is important, though, is that even in this more conservative clarification, the bishop offered some very positive statements about lesbian and gay people:

“ ‘With a mother’s love, the Church welcomes every man and woman, whatever their condition, conscious that regardless of their sexual inclination – and even sexual behavior – every person has the same fundamental dignity,’ Córdoba said.

“Regardless of the controversy it may have generated, Córdoba said,Thursday’s encounter at the University of Los Andes was the first public encounter between a Colombian bishop and the LGBT community.

“ ‘It proves that it’s possible to establish an honest and frank dialogue that could allow us to bring down the walls and discover each other as brothers,’ the bishop wrote in the letter.”

I think the bishop’s heart wanted genuinely to do something positive towards the LGBT community. It is unfortunate that his message became so muddled by his use of a harmful slur and his pulling back from his favorable evaluation. This was the first encounter between the church hierarchy and the Colombian LGBT community. Let’s hope it is not the last, and that Bishop Córdoba’s original intention to show respect and outreach will be manifested more clearly in the future.